Pinterest Adds Shoppable TV With Roku Partnership

Two companies are set to debut “Bring My Pinterest to Life,” an original series where viewers can move seamlessly from watching to shopping through Pinterest and its brand partners, Chain Store Age reported Friday (Jan. 16).

In the series, set to premiere in March on Roku, creators Drew Michael Scott, Caroline Vazzana, and Tay BeepBoop Nakamoto work with Pinterest users to turn their boards into “real spaces and transformations,” the report added.

Per Chain Store Age, each installment focuses on an “inspiration to realization” journey, led by hosts who focus on ideas, products, and brands from featured Pinterest boards in a shoppable format. Viewers can also move from the show to Pinterest to get more ideas and boards, or to brand sites to buy items they’ve just seen featured on the show.

The news comes weeks after Pinterest announced plans to extend its performance advertising capabilities to connected TV (CTV) by purchasing CTV performance advertising platform tvScientific, which allows advertisers to run their own CTV campaigns, pay by outcome and determine the impact of TV. 

“Looking ahead, advertisers will be able to buy TV with the performance metrics they are already using, turning Pinterest into a true search, social and CTV performance solution,” Pinterest CEO Bill Ready said in a news release.

Pinterest also recently began testing a new shoppable recipe experience in the U.S. This service lets users add ingredients from eligible recipe pins (uploaded images and videos stored to their account for fast retrieval) directly to their Walmart online or mobile cart by tapping on the “Shop Ingredients” button.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown the power social media influences have in guiding purchasing decisions, especially among younger consumers.

Last year’s “Gen Z Decoder Ring” report found that 14% of Americans among that age group say they regularly make purchases based on influencer recommendations, 20 times more than their parents and grandparents. 

“However, they aren’t replacing expertise with personality; they’re accessing expertise through different channels,” PYMNTS wrote.

“A gaming influencer on Twitch is a subject matter expert whose credibility comes from demonstrated knowledge rather than institutional credentials. Instagram and TikTok have created new pathways for expertise to reach audiences, where a makeup artist can build authority through consistent results rather than formal training credentials.”